Deals on Wheels #469

It must be
in the blooda bit
A
Luke Hollis spent six
years in Port Hedland
before returning to the
country music capital
s farmers sow crops early in the
season, they place their faith in the
weather gods that sufficient rain will
bring their plantings to a bountiful
harvest later in the year. Mother Nature
can be fickle and sometimes has other
plans for the way she disperses the
water rations.
With the exception of the last grain harvest
season, the Tamworth and Gunnedah region
in New South Wales, like most of the country,
suffered from a crippling drought for three
years or more. The long dry spell and absence
of any meaningful rain left ater tanks empty
and crops thirsty.
Tamworth-based family-run Hollis
Haulage, with its business model based
heavily in contract harvesting, faced
challenges of significant magnitude as the
entire rural economy slowed to a crawl.
Starting in 1983, from the family’s 100-acre,
property ‘Cedar Hill’ just outside the country
music capital, Gary and Bonnie Hollis set
about building the foundations of what would
eventually become Hollis Haulage. Bonnie
worked (and still does) as a nurse, while Gary,
as his father and grandfather did, set about
making his mark in the transport industry.
“My grandfather started out in transport
working bullock teams from Wauchope to
Walcha on the south-eastern edge of the
Northern Tablelands of NSW. Dad drove log
trucks in the same area before moving to
Tamworth to drive stock crates, so it must be
in the blood a bit,” Gary explains.
In the early days, to supplement their small
farm crop income, Gary would jump in his
345 cubic-inch (5,654 cubic cm) V8 powered
International ACCO to do a little bit of grain
cartage work at harvest time for local growers.
At harvest end, Gary and his trusty ACCO
would cart spuds from the Niangala area,
south-east of Tamworth, a bit of timber and
any other work he could get his hands on for
the truck.
Not one to sit idle, to keep the money
coming in, Gary also worked in town at
the Repco machine shop but, according to
Bonnie, Gary just wanted to be his own boss.
As the years marched on, a Bobcat was later
purchased, along with a Volvo F10 tipper. This
led to work for Gary cleaning out chook sheds
and the like. A dog trailer was later added and
a second, newer, F10 Volvo bought to replace
the first one, which had served its purpose.
The eventual purchase of a K100E
Kenworth truck and dog tipper combination,
affectionately known as ‘Rhythm and Blues’
and later the first header, would lead the
business of Hollis Haulage to its current
focus – contract harvesting and rural
commodities transport.
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